Reply To: Victoria: A shambolic state of strata chaos

Austman wrote:

The poster seems to primary want Strata Police. Or some authority that will investigate their issues and take appropriate intervening action.

I think you’re being a bit harsh.  The strata resident is just asking that the professionals and the governing bodies do what they are supposed to do.

The only authority that can enforce strata law in VIC is the legal system. That’s the Tribunals and the Courts.

But if the mandatory mediation bodies are underfunded and overburdened and refusing to take strata disputes, who do you turn to?

All of the rest are just advice bodies or mediation bodies that have no actual authority.

No, but they are part of the process the applicants are urged to take before they get to a tribunal.

It’s nothing new. It’s been that way since the start of strata.

That is exactly the excuse we used to hear before the Owners Corporation Network was formed in NSW but they persevered and got crucial laws changed to protect apartment owners (some of which have been quietly taken up in Victoria.) In the 20 or so years since I started writing about strata, changes to NSW strata laws have included:

• Limits on the number of proxy votes one owner can hold, improving democracy and accountability
• Bans on developers demanding purchasers’ proxy votes as part of the sales agreement (ditto)
• Limits on developers running down the clock on sunset clauses
• Limits on developers controlling the major decisions on their blocks after the units had been sold
• Limits on the contract lengths for strata managers in new buildings (one year at first, then a maximum of three at a time)
• Limits on and regulation of short-term rentals in apartment blocks
• Education campaigns for strata owners on their rights and responsibilities
• Lower voting thresholds for capital works that improve sustainability
• A Building Commissioner who works closely with representatives of strata owners to drive shonky developers out of the business (and maybe into Victoria where the laws are less rigidly enforced).

There’s a lot more but I wonder how much, if any of it would have occurred if NSW strata owners had accepted the status quo and hadn’t started holding politicians to account for their decisions (or lack thereof).

I think any system that allows a cabal of owners to legally meet in secret to make decisions that are enabled by self-serving professionals to the detriment of the blocks they are supposed to be managing and protecting – and then for their owners to have no effective means of calling them to account – is deeply, deeply flawed, whether it has always been that way or not.

While I sympathise with the poster, there comes a time when one has to decide: Seek professional legal advice and or take the matter to the Tribunal. Looking for an authority to intervene in your issues is not going to happen.

Yes, you are right, we have to police our own strata schemes and take our committees, managers and developers to court or the Tribunal if need be.  But when the barriers to that are insurmountable and the Tribunal decision-making is highly unpredictable, taking action is too daunting for most people and nothing will ever change.

Establishing simple criteria for what constitutes unacceptable actions in strata, and simple remedies for when the rules are broken is the only intervention required from the powers that be.  Everything else would follow from that.